Author Topic: GPD Q9 Video Review Emulation Android tests.Benchmarks & Tegra 4 comparison! (Read 69390 times)

nielo360 · « **on:** April 13, 2015, 11:59:44 am »

My GPD Q9 Review
TESTS:
Android games: Exiles, Strangers Wrath, Bladelords
Emulation: Fighting Force 2 (psx) Contra Hard corps (md) Untold legends 2 (psp)

<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210730101534/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af-E9TVfH6U" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af-E9TVfH6U</a>

TIPS

Q9 1.7 firmware seems more stable battery wise (dont recommend using 1.8 firmware)
http://pan.baidu.com/share/home?uk=389368662#category/type=0

UPDATED OFFICIAL FIRMWARE:New version of firmware v1.1.1 (international) (thanks skeleton)
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1ntkjXQp

Use the built in cleam master app to delete all bloatware and junk, (and then remove clean master itself)

Battery calibration app is important after firmware upgrade (use once after charged to 100% from playstore)

Heat is manageable because the clocks seem a bit more stable.

(Set cpu profiles do not work with this device so far, that would be ideal)

hope this is useful for somebody.

IMPORTANT:DEVICE REAL CLOCK RUNS @ 1.4Ghz ONLY NOTES FROM SKELETON'S RESEARCH
Some more digging I have made these days. I got access to latest RK3288 SDK. My suspects were certain, device in latest firmwares is limited to 1,4 ghz (it marks 1,6 ghz but that frequency is never used). DDR Speed is 400 mhz and GPU is 500 mhz. Talking with a GPD engineer they tell me the main reason is the heat. Device has not a good heatsink, so the "workaround" they made to avoid is basically to underclock the device, because some devices can suffer some instability even at 1,6 ghz. Even the system reaches a certain temperature, device speed is automatically lowered. I guess this what happened with nielo360 when he got his device. He suffered some CPU throttling due to temp.

I personally have tested kernel at 1,6 ghz and run without problems in my device. However, true 1,8 ghz is practically impossible to handle in this device. Device is not stable in my testings because I have to increase voltage to 1.4V to make it stable, but means device temp go high very soon and CPU Throttling and crashes are frequent. So I am afraid that 1,6 ghz is the max for this device. And probably the reason why Rockchip limits CPU to 1,6 in tablets. In tvboxes is different because of good heatsinks, but in a tablel 1,8 ghz is impossible to reach it.

With that said, I am using my device with the 1,4 ghz limitation and for me it's fine. Emus run good and the Android games that I have tried run without issues, so probably that speed is enough.

BENCHMARKS:Q9 UPDATED

Comparison to tegra 4 shield portable:

Other info:
international firmware
http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=3904954380&uk=389368662 (thanks skeleton)

Just received the q9 unit, review should be up youtube by tomorow if I can get the play store issue sorted but here are the issues so far:

play store: iv tried my best to install it, even after google services is installed it crashes.
(i need tincore to get R3/L3 functions hence play store)

weight: the device is not too heavy but its enough to hurt my left hand & fingers after 25 mins of gaming due to lack of proper grip and all the weght pushed on the hand. (will explain this in the video) The balance is really bad for me personally however it may be fine for other users. I did not have this issue with the gpd g7.

Nubs: the analog nubs keep rotating in circular motion which make them annoying to use, either this is by design or they are broken(i doubt its broken since both nubs do this)

Screen: the ips screen has good viewing angles..but the colors are dull which is probably to be expected. Brightness is average at best. Maybe a color correction vivid mode mod like in cryogen can fix it.

Heat: the back does get pretty warm and you can feel it in your fingers, its not too bad but this may due to the poor heatsink placement.

speakers: They are stereo and pretty good however the volume needs to be modded as it can be low in some emu's.

Dpad: this has the best dpad iv ever used, which is unfortunate due to the device its on.

would appreciate if someone could tell me the proper method to getting play store working.

Deen0X · « **Reply #1 on:** April 13, 2015, 12:13:30 pm »

Try this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1839871

Melquiades · « **Reply #2 on:** April 13, 2015, 12:14:45 pm »

Hi,

Do you mean google play? I hope not, it would render the device useless.

The heating of the device is not good news neither, I expected the lower power consumption of the 3288 to be an advantage here.

Just some details for the promised review: is it rooted? how good is the battery?

Skelton-retired · « **Reply #3 on:** April 13, 2015, 12:17:40 pm »

Lower power consumption? The RK3288 is not low power consumption at all, in fact is most widely used in tvboxes and a good heatsink in it. Perhaps device does not include heatsink. Forget about overclocking it then.

For google play, probably you just need to install the international firmware that should come with google play I guess

http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=3904954380&uk=389368662

About ergonomics, if it's like q89, then I agree that g7 is definetely more ergonomic. Though for me anything bigger than 5 inch devices is not conforatable at all.

nielo360 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 13, 2015, 12:25:11 pm »

Going to try deenox suggestion when I reach home for the play store

The heat is not bad so far, its just a tad warm, similar to the much i5.

The gpu is quiet strong, oddworld strangers wrath runs with all settings on full (granted resolution is only 1024x600)

Sadly ps4 remote play crashes as with other rockchip devices, support would need to be patched in.

nielo360 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 13, 2015, 02:27:48 pm »

I couldnt flash the zips for google play since there is no custom recovery on the device, flashing those apks dint help either as google play services constantly keeps crashing. I side loaded tincore for L3 and r3 to test gamestreaming along with limelight.

This device comes preloaded with lots of roms for emus and lots of chinese bloatware as well. The keyboard must be changed to something else as its stock chinese with strange methods of input.

Skelton-retired · « **Reply #6 on:** April 13, 2015, 02:36:47 pm »

I think it's easier and faster that you install international firmware, at least that is what I would do:

http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=3904954380&uk=389368662

For CWM perhaps you can use this (I do in my tvbox):

http://www.arctablet.com/blog/forum/rk3288-entwicklung-und-customroms-development-and-croms/rk3288-rom-twrpcwm-flash-tool-custom-root-firmware-20150117/

Skelton-retired · « **Reply #7 on:** April 13, 2015, 02:38:00 pm »

double post

procyon · « **Reply #8 on:** April 13, 2015, 03:03:43 pm »

Just got mine this morning Haven't messed with it for more than ten minutes so far, but I'm jotting down all my impressions so far:

+1 to geekbuying for getting the device in my hands crazy early Monday morning (DHL shipping, good thing I redirected to my office.)

-1 to geekbuying for the very faint, barely perceptible scratches on my screen. There's also two instances of very tiny bubbles on the edges of the screen. It almost made me think there's a film pre-applied to the screen, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Google Play worked out of the box for me. I must be on the international firmware.

Agree that the analog nubs do indeed spin, so when you're performing 360s with them, there's a bit of play (motion) underneath your thumb. Not crazy bad, but noticeable.

Also agree that the colors are a bit washed out, everything seems to be running on the cool (blue) side.

As expected, ridiculous amount of pirated bloatware, but it does come rooted, so it will take some time to figure out what's safe to remove and get as close to AOSP as possible.

Will report more as time goes on.

nielo360 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 13, 2015, 04:08:29 pm »

Quote from: procyon on April 13, 2015, 03:03:43 pm

Just got mine this morning Haven't messed with it for more than ten minutes so far, but I'm jotting down all my impressions so far:

+1 to geekbuying for getting the device in my hands crazy early Monday morning (DHL shipping, good thing I redirected to my office.)

-1 to geekbuying for the very faint, barely perceptible scratches on my screen. There's also two instances of very tiny bubbles on the edges of the screen. It almost made me think there's a film pre-applied to the screen, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Google Play worked out of the box for me. I must be on the international firmware.

Agree that the analog nubs do indeed spin, so when you're performing 360s with them, there's a bit of play (motion) underneath your thumb. Not crazy bad, but noticeable.

Also agree that the colors are a bit washed out, everything seems to be running on the cool (blue) side.

As expected, ridiculous amount of pirated bloatware, but it does come rooted, so it will take some time to figure out what's safe to remove and get as close to AOSP as possible.

Will report more as time goes on.

any idea where I can find the international firmware? there was some link posted for the q88 but I cant find the q9

Also gamestreaming is terrible on it compared to shield/gpd g7/much i5s its either an issue with the wifi or the cpu/gpu clock

too much latency
the nubs maybe analog but on gamestreaming they feel like digital pads due to the lack of proper travel or rotation, hence they are only good for some slow paced android/pc games. I tried shadow of mordor, the camera is quiet hard to control with nubs along with the latency.

Skelton-retired · « **Reply #10 on:** April 13, 2015, 04:16:25 pm »

The CPU/GPU of RK3288 shouldn't be a problem for gamstreaming, at least it is not in my RK3288 box. PErhaps is your wifi, or the antenna that comes with the q9, I don't know.

The international firmware I have posted it a couple of post ago, but here I go again:

http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=3904954380&uk=389368662

About analogs, it's as expected, the analogs of q89 are terrible, so probably in q9 are just the same.

nielo360 · « **Reply #11 on:** April 13, 2015, 04:17:07 pm »

Quote from: skelton on April 13, 2015, 02:36:47 pm

I think it's easier and faster that you install international firmware, at least that is what I would do:

http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=3904954380&uk=389368662

For CWM perhaps you can use this (I do in my tvbox):

http://www.arctablet.com/blog/forum/rk3288-entwicklung-und-customroms-development-and-croms/rk3288-rom-twrpcwm-flash-tool-custom-root-firmware-20150117/

oops just saw it skel ill check it out now thanks for ur help

nielo360 · « **Reply #12 on:** April 13, 2015, 04:23:54 pm »

Quote from: skelton on April 13, 2015, 04:16:25 pm

The CPU/GPU of RK3288 shouldn't be a problem for gamstreaming, at least it is not in my RK3288 box. PErhaps is your wifi, or the antenna that comes with the q9, I don't know.

The international firmware I have posted it a couple of post ago, but here I go again:

http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=3904954380&uk=389368662

About analogs, it's as expected, the analogs of q89 are terrible, so probably in q9 are just the same.

yes its strange cuz on the g7 gamestream works at 60 fps, I think it maybe due to the low battery, despite being plugged in perhaps the cpu is throttled.

Skelton-retired · « **Reply #13 on:** April 13, 2015, 04:29:24 pm »

Try chanigng CPU governor to ondemand or performance to see if it helps. If not, perhaps is a wifi issue, or the wifi in your device works slow. in q89 gamestreaming was fine using limelight, so probably is more a wifi issue I guess. Though with the terrible analogs of these devices, I don't think gamestreaming is too much worth it anyway. I only use q89 (the few times I use it) to play games that are DPAD only.

procyon · « **Reply #14 on:** April 14, 2015, 05:20:29 am »

Skelton, I don't think the option to change the CPU governor is present on this device. If it was available, where would it be found? I couldn't find anything useful in About Tablet...

Some firmware headaches... Coming from the JXD 7800, I didn't expect to miss the hardware back and home buttons so much. But on this device, the screen icons for those functions auto-hide, and there doesn't appear to be any way to disable that. So I'm constantly sweeping my finger up from the bottom to tap back or home. And with the frequency that I need it (when I'm not playing games) it's become a pain in the ass.

I also came from a phone that let me alter the Quick Setting icons under the notification bar, and I can't do that here. Some of the settings there are really useless and dumb. The "Emergency Calls Only" icon is pointless, and the Location icon isn't much better. I wish I could just remove them. Speaking of calls, I also had to go into the system directory and remove TelephonyProvider.apk to knock out Cell Standby as the worst battery offender.

Performance wise, the device is proving to be a good investment. The battery appears to be a lot more stable and reliable than the 7800, and working USB charging is a huge plus. Mupen64 and DraStic have both handled everything that they are expected to run at full frame rate. Other than that and Android Crazy Taxi, I haven't pushed the system too hard, but it definitely meets my expectations. It could just really use some firmware love. I installed Nova Launcher, and while that filled in some functionality gaps, it didn't resolve my two biggest gripes described above.

nielo360 · « **Reply #15 on:** April 14, 2015, 06:09:28 am »

Quote from: procyon on April 14, 2015, 05:20:29 am

Skelton, I don't think the option to change the CPU governor is present on this device. If it was available, where would it be found? I couldn't find anything useful in About Tablet...

Some firmware headaches... Coming from the JXD 7800, I didn't expect to miss the hardware back and home buttons so much. But on this device, the screen icons for those functions auto-hide, and there doesn't appear to be any way to disable that. So I'm constantly sweeping my finger up from the bottom to tap back or home. And with the frequency that I need it (when I'm not playing games) it's become a pain in the ass.

I also came from a phone that let me alter the Quick Setting icons under the notification bar, and I can't do that here. Some of the settings there are really useless and dumb. The "Emergency Calls Only" icon is pointless, and the Location icon isn't much better. I wish I could just remove them. Speaking of calls, I also had to go into the system directory and remove TelephonyProvider.apk to knock out Cell Standby as the worst battery offender.

Performance wise, the device is proving to be a good investment. The battery appears to be a lot more stable and reliable than the 7800, and working USB charging is a huge plus. Mupen64 and DraStic have both handled everything that they are expected to run at full frame rate. Other than that and Android Crazy Taxi, I haven't pushed the system too hard, but it definitely meets my expectations. It could just really use some firmware love. I installed Nova Launcher, and while that filled in some functionality gaps, it didn't resolve my two biggest gripes described above.

youd want to use setcpu to change the governer. Battery wise my system drains quiet fast however that could be firmware issue. You can click on the the double down arrow in the bar to disable auto hide. Performance wise for me its on par with the previous RK3188 quad core device, hence no boost in performance.

Skelton-retired · « **Reply #16 on:** April 14, 2015, 08:14:53 am »

Like nielo360 says, to change cpu governor and speeds you need to use an app, like setcpu, no-frills or Trickster MOD to name a few. I don't know in the case in q9, but in q89 you can use button A or B to act as back function in launcher and in some apps, I suppose in q9 should be the same.

Performance wise, in emulation you won't notice much difference because most emus run fine in rk3188, so except some psp and dc games should be more or less the same. Also, the use of shaders is faster in rk3288, like using hq2x in Broglia emus. But the main difference will be in Android games, because the biggest change is in GPU. At least from what I have tested in my tvbox.

eragon2890 · « **Reply #17 on:** April 14, 2015, 11:07:33 am »

Hello everyone!

My archos gamepad 2, which I absolutely love,has after a year of super intensive usage developed a broken/drifting left stick. This makes games like quake , GTA, dead trigger etc very difficult to play and since it also for example controls the cursor in tex t writing, i really nee a new console. I have a few questions for the people who already have this:

(Please note that i prefer these nubs because of portability so that is not an issue)

-is it true that this is really just the q88 with rk3288 instead of 3188? I read a quite positive review about q88 so if that's the case I can expect the positive review of the screen, button mapper, and compatibility with gamepad-supporting games to still apply to this device as well.

- is the device stable? Ie, it doesn't crash and reboot every few hours?

- is the button mapper good?

- mine should come with play store, are most games marked as compatible?
Can someone with play store please check if the games San andreas, modern combat 4, asphalt 8, real racing 3, dead trigger 1/2, riptide gp2 and galaxy on fire 2 HD show up in the play store as compatible? This should take only one minute to try and would be really helpful ass no game comptaiblilty would be a deal breaker for me. Same question applies to emulators; do retroarch, mupen64 , drastic, snes9x, epsxe show up as ccompatible?

- I do assume the sticks, tough 'bad' , are good enough too play quake, dead trigger etc without too much problems right? For reference , I loved the aerchos gamepad 2 ones before they broke. If as good as those, i am more then happy.

- is the screen good enough too be able t enjoy watching streaming anime, browsing the internet, and reading manga on it? Doesn't have to be stellar , but decent enough to enjoy media consumption on is. Crunchyroll? The gpd 88 review mentioned the screen was fine...

- last one: most high end modern 2014 android games do not run on the rk3188's Mali 400 GPU. Examples include tales of the borderlands, exile, walking dead 2, ... The t-764 should be 6 - 8 times faster according to rk3288 benchmarks, and that was on a 1080p service. I am correct in assuming all current high end android games including gGameloftones will run at 60 fps flat? AAccording to all benchmarks it should (30% faster gpu then even the galaxy s5 in a device with half the screen resolution!) But just to be sure I ask it here. I do also plan to use it a ton for android high end gsames as well as emulators, so I want it to be able to do both well.

Sorry for all the questions, but geekbuying jhas a deal for only 3 more days where you save 22% on one of these, so I really want to know quickly if I should buy it ... Don't want to burn my hands but it looks great!

Any help~? Thanks in advance!

Oh and is geekbuying a good store?

eragon2890 · « **Reply #18 on:** April 14, 2015, 11:57:53 am »

Quote from: procyon on April 13, 2015, 03:03:43 pm

Just got mine this morning Haven't messed with it for more than ten minutes so far, but I'm jotting down all my impressions so far:

+1 to geekbuying for getting the device in my hands crazy early Monday morning (DHL shipping, good thing I redirected to my office.)

-1 to geekbuying for the very faint, barely perceptible scratches on my screen. There's also two instances of very tiny bubbles on the edges of the screen. It almost made me think there's a film pre-applied to the screen, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Google Play worked out of the box for me. I must be on the international firmware.

Agree that the analog nubs do indeed spin, so when you're performing 360s with them, there's a bit of play (motion) underneath your thumb. Not crazy bad, but noticeable.

Also agree that the colors are a bit washed out, everything seems to be running on the cool (blue) side.

As expected, ridiculous amount of pirated bloatware, but it does come rooted, so it will take some time to figure out what's safe to remove and get as close to AOSP as possible.

Will report more as time goes on.

Do you have a normal English keyboard in yours bymdefault? Is everything in English? I want to buy it from geekbuying too, want to know if the keyboard and everything else are all English in the international firmware... And what the compatibility is in play store with games a asked above? :-)

procyon · « **Reply #19 on:** April 15, 2015, 12:28:15 am »

I just got home from work so I can use the unit and respond. I'm surprised no one else beat me to it.

Quote from: eragon2890 on April 14, 2015, 11:07:33 am

-is it true that this is really just the q88 with rk3288 instead of 3188? I read a quite positive review about q88 so if that's the case I can expect the positive review of the screen, button mapper, and compatibility with gamepad-supporting games to still apply to this device as well.

I never had a Q88, so I can't say with certainty, but I mean, just look at the pictures. It's the same exact form factor and everything.

Quote

- is the device stable? Ie, it doesn't crash and reboot every few hours?

Haven't had one crash yet. Although the longest I've used it in one sitting is 30 minutes, so I haven't really taxed it yet.

Quote

- is the button mapper good?

Same one that is standard on the JXD, so sufficient, but not stellar. Tincore would be an upgrade.

Quote

- mine should come with play store, are most games marked as compatible?
Can someone with play store please check if the games San andreas, modern combat 4, asphalt 8, real racing 3, dead trigger 1/2, riptide gp2 and galaxy on fire 2 HD show up in the play store as compatible? This should take only one minute to try and would be really helpful ass no game comptaiblilty would be a deal breaker for me. Same question applies to emulators; do retroarch, mupen64 , drastic, snes9x, epsxe show up as ccompatible?

All of those games show up as available for download on my unit, although I did not do so to try them out or anything. Mupen64, Drastic, SNES9x and ePSXe all run on the device. I haven't tried retroarch since I'm not a fan of it. All of Robert Bruglia's *.emu emulators are my first choice, and they run fine.

Quote

- I do assume the sticks, tough 'bad' , are good enough too play quake, dead trigger etc without too much problems right? For reference , I loved the aerchos gamepad 2 ones before they broke. If as good as those, i am more then happy.

Having bought the device to play old-school retro games, I wasn't too concerned about the quality of the analog sticks. I did give PewPew a whirl since that's my standard analog stick go-to game. I would say the nubs are sufficient and get the job done, but I don't think I would enjoy playing with them for extended periods of time. Since they spin, they have quite a bit of give, and when you push down on them too hard, they don't exactly glide across. I wish I could safely add some grease to them or something, but again, they're not really my focus.

Quote

- is the screen good enough too be able t enjoy watching streaming anime, browsing the internet, and reading manga on it? Doesn't have to be stellar , but decent enough to enjoy media consumption on is. Crunchyroll? The gpd 88 review mentioned the screen was fine...

Well, stellar it is not, but I don't think you will get any eye strain from using it or anything. I works for what it does. It won't be the best experience you've ever had, but it should be far enough from the worst.

Quote

- last one: most high end modern 2014 android games do not run on the rk3188's Mali 400 GPU. Examples include tales of the borderlands, exile, walking dead 2, ... The t-764 should be 6 - 8 times faster according to rk3288 benchmarks, and that was on a 1080p service. I am correct in assuming all current high end android games including gGameloftones will run at 60 fps flat? AAccording to all benchmarks it should (30% faster gpu then even the galaxy s5 in a device with half the screen resolution!) But just to be sure I ask it here. I do also plan to use it a ton for android high end gsames as well as emulators, so I want it to be able to do both well.

No clue about this one, you'll have to ask someone else with more experience with these types of games. They're not my focus.

Quote

Oh and is geekbuying a good store?

Yes, I place my order on a Wednesday and had the device in my hands the following Monday morning. However, as I pointed out, my screen had two barely perceptible, but noticeable in the right light, scratches on the surface. Doesn't affect my usage, but they shouldn't be there at all brand new out of the box. Some people have had mixed experiences with WillGoo, mine have only been positive, but read around.

Quote from: eragon2890 on April 14, 2015, 11:57:53 am

Do you have a normal English keyboard in yours bymdefault? Is everything in English? I want to buy it from geekbuying too, want to know if the keyboard and everything else are all English in the international firmware... And what the compatibility is in play store with games a asked above? :-)

Yes, my unit came with everything completely set to English. Based on what skelton said, I appear to have the international firmware. Play store compatibility commented above, all the games were available.

Author Topic: GPD Q9 Video Review Emulation Android tests.Benchmarks & Tegra 4 comparison! (Read 69390 times)

nielo360 (OP)

nielo360 (OP)

nielo360 (OP)

nielo360 (OP)

nielo360 (OP)

nielo360 (OP)

nielo360 (OP)